Kalman Rubinson
MAHLER: Symphony 9
With Commentary Disc by Benjamin Zander
Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra
Telarc 3CD-80527 (CD). 1999. Robert Woods, David St. George, prods.; Adam Philip, eng. DDD. TT: 87:02 (Commentary disc: 76:42) While there's still a lot of time left, this magnificent recording is an appropriate millennial nominee for "R2D4." First, the Ninth is Mahler's final completed symphonic statement on fate and human existence, and, at the end of his century, there is not yet a more trenchant musical commentary. Second, this recording represents the first…
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"Art is the only political power," the artist Joseph Beuys once said. If only it were true. Often, when power is wielded against an entire people with enough brutality and efficiency, it reduces the culture to a sickening silence, leaving room only for state-sponsored propaganda. Think of the Soviet Union under Stalin, or Germany during the Third Reich. But in other, rarer cases, repression is met with an efflorescence of great art, like a charred field welling up in a riot of wildflowers. Consider what happened in Brazil.
In 1964, that country's armed forces overthrew the leftist…
Holst: The Planets
Cheetham Fraillon: Earth
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, soprano; Upper Voices of the MSO Chorus; Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Jaime Martín
Melbourne Symphony MSO0003 (CD). 2025. Ingo Petry, prod.; Alex Stinson, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
Cheetham Fraillon: Earth
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, soprano; Upper Voices of the MSO Chorus; Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Jaime Martín
Melbourne Symphony MSO0003 (CD). 2025. Ingo Petry, prod.; Alex Stinson, eng.
Performance ****½
Sonics *****
Years ago, Hyperion released a Planets that added Colin Matthews's "Pluto, " absent from Holst's suite. Since then, alas, Pluto was demoted. Now the Melbourne Symphony has issued its own Planets—distributed through a partnership with LSO Live—appending an "Earth" movement composed by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon…
Linda May Han Oh: Strange Heavens
Linda May Han Oh, bass; Ambrose Akinmusire, trumpet; Tyshawn Sorey, drums
Biophilia. 2025. Linda May Han Oh, prod.; Aaron Nevezie, Todd Carder, David Darlington, engs.
Performance **** Sonics *****
Linda May Han Oh, bass; Ambrose Akinmusire, trumpet; Tyshawn Sorey, drums
Biophilia. 2025. Linda May Han Oh, prod.; Aaron Nevezie, Todd Carder, David Darlington, engs.
Performance **** Sonics *****
It is no small accomplishment for a bassist to draw attention away from a trumpeter and a drummer, especially young luminaries like Ambrose Akinmusire and Tyshawn Sorey. But Linda May Han Oh is special. Her purposefulness imbues every note with magnitude, and her attack makes the instrument sound 10' tall, strung with tiger gut. Only a few bassists…
In 1976 Stereophile stablemate Hi-Fi News & Record Review released Quadrafile. Created by then deputy editor Mike Thorne, this limited edition, 2-LP set featured a selection of recordings encoded with the four rival Quadraphonic systems: SQ, QS, CD-4 and UD-4. For more information see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrafile and discogs.com/release/8335618-Various-Quadrafile-Four-Speakers-Four-Systems-Four-Sides.
As much as I love my stereo system and listening to music through two speakers, some recordings just can't be bound by the limits of stereophony. For instance, Carl Orff's epic…
Pulp: More
Rough Trade RT0541LP (2025). James Ford, prod.; Matt Colton, Animesh Ravel, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****
Rough Trade RT0541LP (2025). James Ford, prod.; Matt Colton, Animesh Ravel, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****
Too often, a once-loved band or musician resurfaces after a lengthy time away and releases an album that leans on nostalgia, trading on a wellspring of happy fan memory. Twenty-four years after their last album, Pulp has released More. It doesn't fit the pattern. Indeed, on hearing it, all I can say, is: Wow!
It's not that it's a massive departure from the Pulp of Different Class (1995). The songs are similar in that they are stories of standard…
Robin Trower photo by Blackham Images
Five decades later, even dedicated fans of former Procol Harum guitarist Robin Trower have had to admit that they appreciate his solo albums for more than just his guitar gluttony. To be sure, For Earth Below's title track and his other blues-rock jams, obviously influenced by both the tone and approach of Jimi Hendrix, are foundational for today's stoner-rock subgenre. But while Trower wrote the tunes and is the headliner on all his solo albums, including a new 50th anniversary reissue of For Earth Below on Chrysalis Records, time has shown that the…
Although I have very much appreciated how the best floorstanding loudspeakers have performed in my various listening rooms over the decades, I have always been most comfortable with relatively small two-way standmounts. Back in the early 1980s, I got musically moving sound from a pair of Rogers LS3/5a's, which I still own, followed by Celestion SL6s, SL600s, and SL700s, and for the longest time a pair of Bowers & Wilkins John Bowers Silver Signatures. For the past decade, when not reviewing loudspeakers, I've been using either original KEF LS50s or GoldenEar BRXes as my daily drivers.…
Walking through any big art museum, even at a brisk pace, it's impossible not to notice how boldly each object wears the unique stamp of its time and place of manufacture.
It doesn't matter whether the artist worked in Paris or Polynesia, in the 15th or 20th century. The force of the creator's persona, united with the constraints of the cultural system that supported the making of that type of art, determines the vibe the object emits. That vibe is what I'm hoping to grasp.
Whether I'm examining a Zulu beer pot or a John Cage drawing (both of which I've lived with), my first step…
Listening
Whenever I play records through my sound system, I need to feel the personas of the artists coming through. I want some authentic John Fogerty attitude. I want as much edgy John Lennon as I can get. I want to feel Tina Turner's moves. I want Aaron Neville's sacred voice to haunt me 'til we meet by the river.
As I sat listening with the Stax SR-007S, it took only a few seconds for Aaron Neville singing John Hiatt's sexy dreamy "Feels Like Rain" (16/44.1 FLAC A&M/Qobuz) to lope its way into my heart and choke me up.
Down here the river meets the sea…